What's for tea?

Free cupcakes!

2010-05-10T11:12:00.001-07:00

The lovely Louisa from Lulubelle's Cupcakes has emailed me to let me know about a fantastic competition she's running - a box of 12 cupcakes every month for a year!

Winning them is easy - and yet also a challenge. All you have to do is imagine a new flavour of cupcake. The best one wins. Sounds simple, yes? But since Lulubelle's are behind the incredible and yet to be available cake balls and already do a pretty incredible range of flavours, you may have to go some to come up with a winner.

Anyway. If you think you can do better than orange curd and dark chocolate (that one's mine and I'm pretty sure it's too tame to be a winner!), you can enter here. Good luck!

Chocolate Rose Truffles

2010-02-15T06:04:00.000-08:00

Last March, post-Cheltenham Gold Cup, I went for lunch at Le Champignon Sauvage. This is not going to be a review of that, but, at the end, with the coffee, we had the most incredible truffles. It's hard to describe, but although it look and smelt like a chocolate, when you bit into it, it was like the truffle had instantly become liquid. Rose flavoured liquid.

Anyway, I thought I'd have a go at making chocolate rose truffles. Warning: this recipe is not for you if you don't like turkish delight. But you could substitute a flavour you do like instead.

125g dark chocolate
100ml cream
1 tbs rose water (or rum, or other liqueur, or lavender water, or try a smaller amount of orange or lemon oil)

Melt the chocolate with a spoonful of hot water in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Heat the cream until just warm, and mix with the chocolate.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Add the flavouring and mix well. The chocolate should look shiny and delicious at this stage.
Using an electric whisk, whip the mixture until it's mousse-like (about five minutes should do it.)
Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. Then flatten out a sheet of greaseproof paper and scatter with cocoa powder. Have a bowl of cold water or a cold tap nearby.
Take a spoonful of the mixture and roll it into a ball (after a few your hands will be too warm and sticky, hence the cold water!) then roll it in the cocoa.
And that's it! If you're not eating them straight away, keep them in the fridge. Because of the cream they'll last about three days, take them out of the fridge 20 minutes before eating to come back to room temperature.
They're dead easy, and though they're not quite Michelin star standard, they're more than good enough to give as presents, I'd say. If you don't eat them all first.

A Lamb Casserole, Jan 9

2010-01-10T23:30:00.000-08:00

Take some neck of lamb - on the bone if you can get but if not, fillet will do. If you can't get neck, ask your butcher for another slow cooker, they usually have chunks of leg that will work just as well.

Roll the lamb in some seasoned flour and fry in olice oil, in a casserole dish, until browned. Remove and set aside.

Chop some onion (roughly one small onion per portion of lamb) and add to the pot. Next, garlic cloves, crushed with the flat of a knife. You can add just a couple or loads, depending on your preference.

Fry until softened. Meanwhile peel some parsnips and chop into very chunky pieces. I went for a large parnsip per portion of lamb and you wouldn't want any less - it's the sweetness of the neep that makes the sauces so beautifully tasty.

If you like, peel and chop a couple of potatoes and throw them in too (waxy ones hold their shape better, but a maris piper will add something extra to the flavour of the sauce.)

Put the lamb and any juice that's come out while it's been resting back in the pot. Cover with hot water and throw in some sprigs of rosemary. I didn't bother with salt and pepper because the lamb was already seasoned.

Put in a medium oven (I used gas mark 5) and leave for at least 90 minutes.

The parsnips should be meltingly soft and will have given the sauce a sweet velvety quality that will make you want to eat it all at once. Yum

Recipe inspired by Nigel Slater's Simple Suppers BBC TV show.

The best way to barbecue lamb

2009-05-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

Take a butterflied leg or half leg of lamb. Marinade in the following

Sprigs of rosemary
Juice of three lemons
Juice of two oranges
Four cloves of garlic, crushed
Couple of tablespoons of redcurrant jelly

You can adjust the quantities depending on the amount of lamb you have. Leave overnight.

Cook on a hot barbecue until seared on both sides. Then put in a pre-heated oven (180C) for ten minutes. Slice, and eat with tatziki, salad and pitta bread.

REVIEW: Fra Noi, High Street, Lyndhurst

2009-03-23T04:48:00.000-07:00

For a small village, Lyndhurst has its fair share of eateries. As soon as one closes, another springs up in its place. But a walk past the window of Fra Noi is enough to stop you in your tracks.
What was once a vivdly coloured Thai restaurant has become a calm serene Italian trattoria, where wood furniture sits next to perspex bar stools and a brushed steel wine rack. It had only been open a week, so when we arrived to an empty dining room on a Thursday night we nearly went elsewhere. But we needn’t have worried.
We were warmly welcomed by owner Anson, who brought us bread and a selection of olive oils to try while we tried to decide what to eat – and there were soon plenty of other people filing through the door.
Anson and his Italian wife Francesca seem to be aiming for the foodie market. All their bread and pasta is made on the premises.
The olive oils are imported from Italy and are not available anywhere in Britain. The menu could look daunting to diners expecting the pizza/pasta/salad combos of a Prezzo or Pizza Express. It’s split into four courses, the traditional Italian way, with antipasti followed by pasta and then a meat course.
The choices of sauces for the pasta is far more imaginative than you’d normally get in a British Italian, ranging from chicory and sausage cannelloni to egg and parmesan soup, a Northern Italian dish.
The wine list featured a good selection, although none of it cheap. We went for a prosecco for £17.95 and very nice it was too.
After much deliberating we plumped to start with crostini with a selection of handmade dips (sausage, courgette and avocado) and polenta with mushrooms. Both were fabulous, the dips with the crostini simple but bursting with flavour and the polenta perfectly textured.
Neither of us felt we had the stomach for pasta and meat courses. But choosing which to have was taxing than it looked. There were only six options for each but they all sounded so gorgeous it took sometime to decide. From the beef carpaccio to the aubergine layered with parmesan and tomato, they are all simple concepts that rely on the quality of the ingredients, Fortunately Francesca and Anson know their stuff. I went for a simple ragu with homemade fresh tagliatelle and my other half went for the cannelloni with chicory and sausage.
Mine was the embodiment of the rule that good food doesn’t have to be flashy; a perfectly seasoned, tomatoey sauce with really good steak mince, and light tender pasta cooked slightly al dente. His was amazing, a combination you might think unusual but worked perfectly.
For dessert we shared a chocolate cake with white chocolate sauce – despite being warned it would take a few minutes as it was cooked to order – which was a delight, a light cake with a rich chocolate sauce oozing from the centre.
The handmade lavender and honey chocolates were exactly what you’d expect from a far more expensive restaurant and although we passed on the coffee I’d be willing to bet they make a mean espresso.
Fra Noi looks expensive. It tastes expensive. The service is friendly but unobtrusive. Anson and his wife obviously care about what they do and the standard they provide. But the bill, with prosecco and water, came to £56 for the two of us. More than Prezzo. But definitely worth it.

High Street, Lyndhurst, Hampshire, SO43 7BJ, E: info@franoi.co.uk, T: 02380 283 745

On why the amaretto latte is the perfect drink

2009-02-18T03:04:00.000-08:00

On why the amaretto latte is the perfect drink

1. It’s coffee.
2. It’s sweet, but not too sweet, with the bitterness of almonds
3. It tastes like Christmas
4. It makes you think you’ve got a tot of amaretto liqueur in your cup.
5. You get a little amaretti biscuit with it. And if you’ve ever eaten Delia’s Chocoloate Truffle Torte or Nigel’s lemon pots, you’ll know why that’s a good thing.

That’s it. kthanxbai !

Feeding a cold

2008-11-06T02:13:00.000-08:00

Last night it was fishfingers and lemon fondant potatoes. Not very bonfire-y I admit but my other half wanted fishfingers (and jolly nice they were too)

Today I am suffering from a cough and sinus cold. Any suggestions about a healthy, nourishing tea?

Tonight I shall be mostly eating....

2008-11-04T04:57:00.001-08:00

So. Tuesday. It's US election night, so maybe we should go with an American theme. But it's also nearly Bonfire Night, which makes me think of really slow-baked potatoes, marshmallows on sticks and of course sausages.

Anyone got any Americana ideas so I can save the spuds for another day?

What we're all about

2008-11-04T04:53:00.000-08:00

It's the age-old question.... what shall we have for tea?

Here's where we plan to share our ideas with you - and we want you to share them with us!